Poland is definitely up there on my favorite places in Europe! I loved it the entire time we were there (the people, the city, the history) it had it all and it was a great place to be with friends. I felt like a rich person there as well, could of attributed to my love for this country (for every zoulty (Polish dollar) it is $3.10 USD). I ate king type meals and went to the casino late at night and still only managed to spend 100 dollars the entire time I was there. All of the hang out time with my group of friends was amazing, but the real reason we were all there was because we wanted to see Auschwitz and Schindler's Factory. About a month ago began to get in contact with a company from Poland that provided English speaking tours, transportation to Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Schindler's Factory. I'm not going to share any photos on the blog, but will provide a link at the end of this entry that has the pictures I took (167 or so) with descriptions to follow along with.
Where to start, well we arrived in Poland after a 3 hour flight from Madrid around 10:30 a.m., arrived to our hostel at noon-ish, and then headed to find FOOD! We made our way to a Kebab place and ate there..it cost 5 dollars for a Kebab that we could barely finish. I cannot begin to describe how cheap this country was in comparison to America and Spain. Anyway, we visited St. Mary's Parish where Pope John Paul II performed numerous masses. It was pretty cool. After that we caught some much needed ZZZZ's. Hung out that night and played some card games, then headed off to the casino next door. Bill was able to double up and made a whopping 25 euro! haha. I just watched him, didn't bet when I had no idea what I was doing (knew blackjack would make me broke). Eventually, we made our way out at night and had a great time. The next morning we were all up at 8:00 to get ready for our tour company to pick us up at 9:30. The company picked us up at our hostel and took us to Auschwitz, it was an hour long drive to Auschwitz I where we met up with our tour guide. She was extremely informative and answered any and all questions we asked her. She mad the experience better than we ever could have hoped for. The tour was amazing, no one spoke unless they had a question because we were all awestruck at how insane this whole situation was from our current perspective. Before we saw all the belongings of the Jewish people, we were taking into a room where we were not allowed to take photos. This room contained 7,000+ pounds of Jewish people's hair, which was cut off by the Nazi's prior to their death in the gas chambers. The Nazis were all about making money to, to explain, they sold anything that was of legitimate value, such as their hair? Yes, they sold the Jews hair to textile companies in Germany, and this hair was used to create blankets and other things. They had some of these hairy textiles and blankets in the showcase. It was by far the most influential part of the trip for me. It really put into perspective how many people died there. Yeah, the gas chamber was beyond morbid, but I didn't see physical objects that could remind me of the people that passed away like I could with the amount of hair, glasses, shoes, combs, etc. They would even have Jews who were suppose to push the dead bodies across the hall of the gas chambers, pick the gold teeth out of the deceased head, and drop them in the "loading area" for the oven. I've never had such an undeniable hatred for humanity and for the German people. The craziest thing is that this all happened 60 years or so ago. Words wouldn't be able to describe the feelings and thoughts we all had while on the tour. Within Block 18 there were cells in the basement, standing cells where up to 5 Jews at a time were forced into a 4 foot by 4 foot cell to await their death in at the "death wall."
At one point we heard someone gasp while we were in the gas chamber, that was because she saw scratch marks on the walls of the gas chamber. The way they killed these people in the gas chambers was beyond barbaric. They dehumanized them as much as possible, in order to find a way for them to justify the awful acts they were committing against them. After the gas chambers, in the next room, there were ovens where the bodies of the Jews were burned immediately after death. The death for these people was not fast by any means, I had thought it was instant death, but our guide told us that it typically took 15 minutes for a person to die, 10 if they were "weak." They died by suffocation, too, the chemical used (Zyklon B) attacks the airways and the lungs. Our Auschwitz-Birkenau tour, which was 15 minutes away by car from Auschwitz 1 (oh, that's right I remember I wanted to clear something up..okay. Most people just think of Auschwitz (I did before this tour) as one giant concentration and death camp. Well, very untrue. Auschwitz was broken into three different Auschwitz: Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau), and Auschwitz 3 (Holowitz, I believe). These were spread out from each other quite a bit.) Birkenau was the typical site people think of when they think Concentration camps, Nazis, and Jews. My favorite part of Birkenau was seeing the bunk areas. The one we stopped at had a flower in it for those who had passed. The water area I took a picture of was like a trough for animals. They would pump water in there once or twice daily and people would have to fight for water. As for the bathrooms there, they were only allowed to go to the bathroom once in the morning and then once at night when the Nazis opened them. These were large bathrooms with no privacy, and they were never given enough sufficient time to do their thing because they all were suffering from diarrhea and dysentery.
After Auschwitz-Birkenau I was ready to go home, I was emotionally and physically tired, but we had one more stop on our tour and arrived at Schindler's Factory about an hour later back in downtown Krakow, near the Jewish Quarter. Our guide told us that there are nearly no Jewish people left in Krakow. Schindler's Factory was cool, it was just converted into a Krakow city Museum. A lot of cool memorabilia but no factory.
Later that night we celebrated St. Patty's Day at our hostel with green beer and such. Played some more games, then went back to the casino. haha. Bill doubled up again...it was like deja vu. The next day we walked around to the local market and food place. I bought a pair of Ray Ban's for 80 zoulty or $25 just because they were so cheap. Later that night we watched my Billikens compete in the NCAA tourney against a highly praised Michigan State team. We all huddled around my computer, beer in hand, while we streamed the game live from a (possibly legal...maybe?) website I use to watch ESPN and other sporting events. It was a well fought game, my buddy Jordair did work, but they lost 65-61. Close but no cigar, next year will be the year haha (I sound like a Cubs fan every year..."Next year guys, next year. No? We'll never win? Oh, okay.) Overall Poland was amazing, if you ever want to have the feeling of being a millionaire, head there you will be royalty ha.
We got on the plane at 10:30 and arrived in Madrid at 2:50. Came home to Vagus's happy attitude, wondering how our trip was and why Bill and I did not get haircuts like we told her we were going to (it was closed..a haircut was $5), and why Peter looked like a zombie. This is all for me this time, I think I've said enough. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me. Love you all!
Oh I about forgot...here is the link to check out the pictures (just cut and paste it up top and it should work, if not email my mom and she'll holler at me):
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150891357058327.513483.517268326&type=3&l=03fb76d031
I'll be heading to Amsterdam this Friday night 7:20 p.m. (1:20 p.m. your time). I will be SAFE, AS ALWAYS!!!
~Stephen
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